125,000 Laid Off In Major Cuts As Recession Fears Spiked, According To Forbes Tracker

Topline

Nearly 125,000 employees lost their jobs so far this year as more than 120 large U.S. tech companies, banks and manufacturers implemented massive rounds of layoffs, according to the Forbes layoff tracker, which documented major cuts (over 100) beginning in June when recession fears began to surge.

Outside the Twitter office in New York.

Key Facts

More than 60,000 U.S. workers have been laid off since the beginning of November—including 4,800 estimated to be affected by a 10% cut at semiconductor maker Micron this week—as well as 4,000-6,000 estimated to be hit by a round of layoffs at HP Inc., and 10,000 reportedly affected by a round of cuts at Amazon.

Just this month, banking giant Morgan Stanley cut 1,600 employees, multiple outlets reported, while Goldman Sachs reportedly announced plans to lay off possibly 4,000 employees, joining other large banks like Barclays (200), online banker Chime (160), Wells Fargo (36) and Citigroup, which reportedly cut 50 employees last month.

Tech startups and online businesses have also born the brunt of recent layoffs, with online ecommerce site BigCommerce letting go of 180 workers, Airtable cutting 254, online financial service company Plaid cutting 260, home services company Thumbtack cutting 160 and online real estate company Doma laying off 515 positions.

Several media outlets have also announced large cuts, including Gannett—the parent company of USA Today, the Detroit Free Press and the Indianapolis Star—which laid off 6% of its roughly 3,400 employees in its media division earlier this month and another 400 in August.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti also announced this month the online outlet plans to lay off 180 employees (12% of its workforce) amid “challenging macroeconomic conditions,” while CNN announced it plans to lay off employees, reportedly gutting its HLN cable network, though CNN did not respond to a Forbes inquiry seeking further details.

Big Number

11,000. That’s the number of employees laid off last month at Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta—the biggest round of cuts this year, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the “most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history.” In a company memo, Zuckerberg said the company invested heavily and boosted hiring at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when people increasingly turned to online sites, but admitted the company has since suffered financially due to “macroeconomic downturn” and “increased competition.”

Surprising Fact

Peloton underwent four rounds of layoffs this year—the largest of which affected more than 2,800 employees—as the at-home exercise equipment maker slumped following the Covid-era exercise-from-home trend. Its latest round in October affected roughly 500 employees, just two months after the New York-based company cut 800 jobs and unveiled plans to shut down multiple stores and raise the price of its at-home bike and treadmill machines.

Tangent

More than 91,000 U.S. employees working in the tech sector have been laid off so far this year, according to Crunchbase. Tech workers have been hit especially hard by recent layoffs, including more than 1,000 employees who were cut in August by online brokerage company Robinhood, as well as another 1,000 at Shopify in July, 1,000 at biotech company Invitae and 1,280 at Snap—the developer of Snapchat.

What We Don’t Know

How big reported layoffs could be at several large companies, including Google and Twitter. Last month, Google’s parent company Alphabet reportedly launched a program to identify 10,000 poor-performing employees that could be cut. In September, Google had reportedly given 50 employees at the firm’s startup incubator three months to find new positions within the company or face being laid off. Twitter, meanwhile, started a round of cuts in November, reportedly affecting half of the social media giant’s 7,500 employees, following previous reporting that indicated CEO Elon Musk could be looking to cut as much as 75% of its staff. Citing tweets and LinkedIn posts from departing employees, multiple outlets reported this week that those cuts are still ongoing.

Key Background

This year’s layoffs came as inflation hit a 40-year-high this summer led by soaring gas prices, which skyrocketed to an all-time high in June, at $5.02 per gallon—although prices have since come down. Home sales, meanwhile, have collapsed amid a cool housing market; the Federal Reserve implemented five rounds of interest rate hikes intended to slow the economy and curb soaring inflation; and economists warn recession could be around the corner. In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier this month, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned inflation will “erode consumer spending power” and that a recession could begin by the middle of 2023.

What To Watch For

The yield curve, for any more signs a recession is imminent.